Martin Lee Anderson (c. January 15, 1991 – January 6, 2006) was a 14-year-old from Florida who died while incarcerated at a boot camp-style youth detention center, the Bay County Boot Camp, Mark A. Ober, State Attorney, to The Honorable Jeb Bush, Governor, November 28, 2006 located in Panama City, Florida, and operated by the Bay County Sheriff's Office. Upon arriving at the camp he was forced to run track, and within two hours he became fatigued and stopped. The guards beat him to force him to continue his run. He returned to the track, collapsed and died a short while later. A portion of the surveillance video depicting the beating was made public. The video failed to support the police account that Anderson had been non-compliant. The incident resulted in the Florida legislature voting to close the state's five juvenile boot camps.
Circumstances On January 5, 2006, within the first two hours of Anderson's first day at the camp, where he had been committed for stealing his grandmother's car, curfew violation during probation, and theft of candy, he was required to run track. After he had stopped from fatigue, camp officials forced him to continue exercising, by kneeing and hitting him. Drill instructors grabbed Anderson and applied numerous uses of force, including holding Anderson by the arms, take-downs, and pressure point applications, as well as multiple knees and strikes to his back. Anderson became unresponsive during this episode, and the guards administered ammonia salts in an attempt to revive him. He was taken to a hospital for treatment, where he died the next day in Pensacola, Florida after his parents elected to remove him from life support. "Anderson died the next morning in a Pensacola hospital after his family took him off life support."
Investigation
An investigation into the teen's death began immediately, as a cooperative effort of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the state Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Bay County Sheriff's Department.
On February 18, 2006, State Attorney Steve Meadows, whose jurisdiction includes Bay County, appealed to Florida Governor Jeb Bush for the case to be reassigned from his office. In his letter, Meadows admitted "close ties" to FDLE chief Guy Tunnell, who had been serving as Bay County sheriff when he opened the boot camp where Anderson later died.
Bush appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober to oversee the case. It was still open as of November 2024 and under his supervision.
On November 28, 2006, authorities announced the arrest of eight people in connection with Anderson's death. Seven guards and a nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a felony. They were all later acquitted of the charges.
On April 16, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that no federal criminal civil rights charges would be filed against the eight people who were originally charged in Anderson's death. The press release included the following:
"After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that the evidence was insufficient to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges. Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed."
Two autopsies
On January 9, FDLE officials announced that Anderson's autopsy ruled out "trauma or injury" as the cause of his death.
The official cause of death was not reported for another five weeks. In mid-February, Bay County Medical Examiner Charles F. Siebert announced that his first autopsy of Anderson determined that the Black teen died of complications from sickle cell trait, a relatively common condition among African Americans.
A Florida statute allows a medical examiner to return a body to the jurisdiction where the incident occurred. Ober cleared Siebert of any wrongdoing in bringing the body back to Bay County.
On March 12, Anderson's body was exhumed and a second autopsy was conducted by the coroner of Hillsborough County, Dr. Vernard Adams. Hillsborough County, Florida, Medical Examiner, "About the Director" This time, the autopsy was attended by several other forensic pathologists as consultants to Adams. Dr. Michael Baden, New York State Police coroner, attended at the request of Anderson's parents and the NAACP.
Dr. Adams' findings:
The results of the second autopsy were announced by the State Attorney, Marc Ober, on May 6. Adams said that Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards. A lack of oxygen was caused by holding his mouth closed while forcing him to inhale ammonia fumes. The video shows guards holding the capsules in Anderson's face repeatedly.
Controversy and criticism Many of the major figures in the Anderson investigation have been criticized by Anderson's family, youth advocates, civil-rights and anti-detention groups, as well as state and national media outlets.
Immediately after observing Adams' 12-hour autopsy, Baden said, "Preliminary findings indicate the boy did not die from sickle cell trait, nor did he die from natural causes." Dr. Baden has said repeatedly that sickle trait by itself does not cause death. He explained a "sickle cell crisis" is a sickle cell disease—not the same as sickle cell trait. By itself, the sickle cell trait is not harmful. People with sickle cell trait can lead perfectly healthy lives. But beyond that, he said, hospital records indicate Anderson's blood was not sickled until the moment at which he started to die.
Other medical examiners disagreed and noted that sickle cell trait had been found to contribute to exertional deaths. The consensus has resulted in military services of the UK and US changing certain practices in training to protect trainees.
A 1996 study found people with sickle cell trait have a four thousand percent increased incidence of sudden death when put in a boot camp environment. The risk of sudden death in boot camp environments for people with sickle trait has long been recognized in military services. Some military services, such as Great Britain, chose to limit activities of people with sickle trait. The US military, in contrast, changed its boot camp procedures to lessen the probability of exertional death (Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, Memorandum 2003-004 Screening for Sickle Cell Disease at Accession). Recent studies have shown that laboratory specimens falsely underestimate the degree of sickling in the blood. Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner said, "Michael Baden saying it [sickle cell trait] does not harm you—considering the literature, he may as well have walked out and said the world is flat."
In June 2007 the National Athletic Trainers' Association released a consensus statement noting that approximately 5 percent of exertional deaths in young healthy athletes were from exertional sickling in those with sickle cell trait.
According to Adams, "Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway." Death due to laryngospasm, however, is not listed in standard lists of adverse effects. Dr. Randy Eichner noted in his testimony that such a death had never been recorded in 150 years of use of ammonia spirits. Dr. Adams did not dispute this: Defense attorney Waylon Graham asked him why he thought the use of ammonia could have killed Anderson when nothing like that has ever been recorded "in the history of the world." "This is the only place in the world to my knowledge where ammonia capsules were used this way," Adams said. "So no other deaths would have occurred."
A number of forensic pathologists support Siebert's diagnosis. Steve Meadows, the State Attorney who succeeded Ober, concluded that the criticism of Siebert was politically motivated. When the Medical Examiner Commission voted not to retain Siebert following the expiration of his contract, Meadows appointed Siebert into the position as temporary Medical Examiner. Meadows stated: "I will not sacrifice Charles Siebert on the altar of political expediency or correctness. Despite what amounts to a reckless character assassination by some media outlets and, regrettably, even some members of our government, I believe Dr. Siebert to be a competent and thorough medical examiner–not beholden to anyone or any cause. Quite simply, Dr. Siebert is a well-qualified doctor doing his best to serve the people of this district. I am certain that Dr. Siebert looks forward to a hearing before an administrative judge and his first opportunity to respond to the allegations upon which the vote for his removal was based."
Medical examiner criticized Charles F. Siebert, the Bay County medical examiner who performed Anderson's first autopsy and ruled out foul play, faced charges of professional incompetence but ultimately was exonerated. Siebert's critics and the media made much of the 2004 report of an autopsy he performed on 34-year-old Donna Reed, a female who died during Hurricane Ivan, because it noted that Reed's testicles and prostate were "unremarkable".
On August 9, 2006, the state Medical Examiners Commission recommended probation, which was not upheld. Originally, a panel from the Commission recommended that Siebert be suspended, after an inquiry discovered that he was negligent in at least 35 of 698 cases reviewed. But none of these findings was related to cause or manner of death. While the newspapers used the word "negligent," the Medical Examiners Commission did not accuse him of negligence. The commission decided to retain Siebert until his contract expired June 27, 2007, with the provision that he pay for outside review of his future work (a QA program).
The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME), concerned that Siebert was being subjected to a "witch hunt", took the unusual step of writing to the Medical Examiner Commission to offer its services to remedy the situation. The Medical Examiner Commission did not respond to the NAME letter. On January 15, 2007, NAME followed up with a second statement of its concerns. National Association of Medical Examiners Executive Committee to Florida Medical Examiners Commission, January 15, 2007, re: Charles F. Siebert, Jr., M.D.
On January 18, 2007, the Medical Examiner Commission and Siebert reached a negotiated agreement in which the Medical Examiner Commission removed all references to "probation" or "discipline" and Siebert agreed to institute a quality assurance program to look for typographical errors in reports. Siebert was not required to accept the claims of error, and is free to pursue other remedies. In July 2007, Dr. Joseph Prahlow, president of NAME, noted that "consensus [among Medical Examiners] nationally, however, is that Siebert is being singled out for political purposes." He said that "the more vocal members of the national society of forensic pathologists support Siebert. He was careful to point out that the most vocal didn't necessarily represent the majority of members, and very few have examined both autopsy reports."
On August 3, 2007, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, retired Chief Medical Examiner for San Antonio and author of two best-selling textbooks of forensic pathology stated that Siebert's conclusions were scientifically valid and that Adams' was not. Some weeks later Dr. John Hunsaker, former President of the National Association of Medical Examiners, also asserted this opinion in a radio interview. Dr. Randy Eichner, team doctor for the University of Oklahoma Sooners and expert on exertional deaths, called Adams' conclusions "fantasy."